FAQ - Master- Economics, Law and Social Sciences

The master's thesis is usually written in the final year of the Master's programme.

As a rule, there are the following application and submission deadlines:

in the SS:

• by 15 March: complete application to the Deanery (incl. certificate of enrolment and declaration of release)
• Issue of the approved topic on 1 April --> processing time 5 months
• Submission of the thesis by 31 August

in the WS:

• by 15 September: complete application to the Deanery (incl. certificate of enrolment and declaration of release)
• Issue of the approved topic on 1 October --> processing time 5 months
• Submission of the thesis by 28 February

Deviations are only possible in exceptional cases and upon justified request!

This should be agreed in advance with the respective examiner/supervisor of the master's thesis. For more information on the examiner/supervisor, see 5.

The Master's thesis is a written or artistic-practical examination in which the candidate should demonstrate that they are able to work independently on a problem from the chosen Master's programme using scientific methods and present the results appropriately within a specified period of time.

The topic of the master's thesis must be related to the Master's programme.

The master's thesis must be registered in writing using the form .

The topic of the Master's thesis and the expert reports are determined by the examination board. The candidate can express topic requests. The topic is issued by the Deanery. The topic and date must be recorded.

The processing time for the Master's thesis is 5 months. The topic, task and scope of the Master's thesis must be limited by the supervisor in such a way that the deadline for completing the Master's thesis can be met. As a rule, the scope of the master's thesis should not exceed approx. 25,000 words.

The final module is worth 30 CP. This is made up of 27 CP for the MA thesis itself and 3 CP for an ungraded colloquium.

The colloquium must be registered for as usual via E.L.V.I.S. However, as the Master's thesis is issued by the examination board and cannot be registered for, the credit points will be entered into the study account by the Department 1: Studies and Teaching on the basis of a certificate of achievement.

At this point, reference can be made to Section 19 of the Framework Examination Regulations:

Only professors and other persons authorised to examine may be appointed as examiners who, unless compelling reasons require a deviation, exercise independent teaching responsibility in the Master's programme to which the examination relates.

The master's thesis is passed if the calculated grade is at least 4.00 or if two out of three examiners assess the thesis as "sufficient", in which case the grade is at least 4.00. The grade is calculated from the average of the assessments. The first two decimal places after the decimal point are taken into account, all other decimal places are cancelled without rounding. The grade for the master's thesis is thus calculated as follows: The examiners' assessments are added together and divided by the number of examiners.

until summer semester 2021

Three copies of the master's thesis must be submitted on time and once electronically to the Chair of the Examination Board via the Deanery. The submission date must be recorded.
 

from WS 2021/22: Resolution of the M-PA on the submission of MA theses via Wiseflow

• The M-PA examination board decides that from the winter semester 2020/21, all master's theses must be submitted digitally as a PDF via the WISEFlow platform.
• The obligation to submit printed versions will be reduced to one copy, with additional copies for first and second examiners if necessary.
• The printed copy must be accompanied by the declarations (see 15.) signed by hand.
  
  You can find the entire resolution here

The PDF document must not exceed a size of 20 MB. In addition to this file, a further file with attachments or annexes may be uploaded (1 GB). Please note the information sheet on submitting master's theses via WISEflow.
Further information on WISEflow can be found here

Data protection

All submitted theses are subjected to a plagiarism check and stored on the University of Erfurt server for further plagiarism checks. For data protection reasons, please avoid any information that contains personal data about you or other persons. WISEflow will generate a data protection-compliant cover sheet for your thesis. You only need to add the title of your thesis here.

Also, do not upload any additional materials that contain sensitive and/or personal data. These materials are often not required for the assessment. If such file attachments are required for the review, they must be anonymised. Please be sure to discuss with your examiners which attachments should be submitted before uploading files to WISEFlow.

Changing, adding to or returning the topic of the master's thesis requires firstly the approval of the supervisor and secondly a written application to and approval by the examination board.
If you submit the master's thesis with a changed topic (title) that has not been applied for and approved in advance, the thesis will not be accepted and will be deemed to have been failed. This regulation also applies to the addition of subtitles!

As a rule, the master's thesis must be assessed by two examiners. This should include the supervisor of the master's thesis. The thesis must be assessed by a third examiner if the grades of the first and second examiners differ by more than 2.0 grades or if only one of the two examiners grades the thesis as "insufficient".

The grade is calculated from the average of the grades. The first two decimal places after the decimal point are taken into account, all other decimal places are cancelled without rounding. The grade for the master's thesis is thus calculated as follows: The examiners' assessments are added together and divided by the number of examiners.

The assessment procedure must be completed after 8 weeks at the latest.

The master's thesis can be repeated once if the grade is "insufficient".

In this case, please contact the MA examination board. They will then advise you on a case-by-case basis as to how much influence this will have on the progress of your MA thesis. You may be granted a deferral.

Then the processing time, if proof of illness is available is extended by the period of illness.

This takes place automatically after submission of the proof of illness to SuL and the Deanery. After processing, you will receive a document with the new submission date.

In justified individual cases, an extension of the deadline can be requested from the M examination board. If you would like to submit an application (informally) to the examination board, please note that it must be submitted at least 7 days before the submission deadline.

Please submit the following documents to the M Examination Board:

• formal application stating the original submission date (including all previous renewals), the number of days of the requested renewals and a detailed justification
• Evidence that is helpful in justifying the application, e.g: Parenting certificate, information on closing times of childcare facilities, etc.
• Confirmation from the first examiner that the requested renewals appear appropriate in order to complete the work within the requested deadline (can be sent by email)

Relevant information is available on the central pages of the "Studies and Teaching" department:

The framework examination regulations can be found here

The study regulations for Economics, Law and Social Sciences can be found here

The application form for a master's thesis can be found here

Please refer to the guidelines published by the Presidium on the use of generative AI in teaching and examinations. Link

• Declaration of release:

Through written work, students demonstrate that they are able to work independently on questions and problems relating to the subject using scientific methods within a given period of time and to present the results in writing in an appropriate manner. In the course of their work, they acquire and deepen their ability to reflect, writing skills, correct citation and bibliography. They learn academic standards of scientific work.

Whether and which AI tools may be used as aids in the course of an examination must be precisely defined. It can help to clarify

1. which tools may be used for topic identification and literature research (including preparation with literature research, etc.);
2. which tools may be used to generate (create and formulate) parts of the text;
3. which tools may be used to revise the text.

In addition, it must be clarified how the independence of the examination performance is assessed if the use of AI tools is permitted.

You can find the declaration of release here: Declaration of Consent

• Declaration of independence (tools used):

Which aids were used to write written work must also be stated when using generative AI. Students must also declare that they have written the thesis independently and have not used any unauthorised aids.

You can find the extendedDeclaration of Academic Integrity here

In addition to the formal clarification, students should be encouraged to critically analyse the use of resources. They can document this in a short reflection paper. This should name the tools used and discuss which parts of the work have been characterised by them and how the use of AI has changed aspects of content and language.